One of the perks of backwards compatibility on the current consoles is that console gamers can still buy and play anything they have released over the last 10 years.

To be honest M can still be sold to anyone of any age. But the text descriptions usually highlight the more highly classified content so sports games with loot boxes will see changes like this:

if I spend money for a currency in a gacha game, and then trade that currency for some character pulls, does that count? […] Essentially, I paid for a character, and I still get a character, I just don’t know which one I will get.

Yes. A real money purchase that leads to randomised rewards counts.

This comes into effect pretty soon. I expect a few titles will get caught in the transition.

McDonalds currently has their Monopoly promotion running and this time it is entirely in app. Purchases have to be made in app with real world currency to be eligible to play mini games to collect randon properties that correspond to real world prizes. This feels like it would be M if classified under the new guidelines

They are still a pretty big deal.

Take-Two Interactive announced in January 2022 its intent to buy Zynga for $12.7 billion. The deal was completed in May 2022.

According to Take-Two Interactive, about 10% of the world’s population plays Zynga’s games every month.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zynga

For context, that buyout value is $4.5 billion more than Microsoft paid for ZeniMax Media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_video_game_mergers_and_acquisitions

This is just Polygon’s guess of what they think will be nominated - pure crystal ball gazing.

That said on previous years there has been a few weeks between ballots being due and the cut off for a games release date:

Ballots were sent out to outlets on Oct. 29, due back on Nov. 6, […]. Outlets also had until Nov. 13 to send in updated versions of those ballots, if changes were necessary. […] To be eligible, the game must be released before Nov. 20 […]

https://www.polygon.com/2020/11/18/21574150/the-game-awards-nominations-2020-games-list

Are they valuing it at €1 per cart?

That seem too high for production costs and too low for retail value.

This is the commit where the license changed:

https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/commit/9ca6b5430fb358b39f21ce0b2fc0268de954dd23

The parent link on that page takes you to the most recent before the license change:

https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/commit/25bc8a64803df7e702db66e0f11d7b7d0fdc99f2

Anyone can fork the repo and continue working from 25bc8a6

Open critic has a handy chart available for scored titles that compares it with the rest of their database. This offers some insight into the score distribution:

• a score of 50 places in the 6th percentile
• a score of 60 places in the 15th percentile
• a score of 70 places in the 40th percentile
• a score of 80 places in the 79th percentile
• a score of 90 places in the 99th percentile

So a score of 70 is already pretty mid, and 60 or lower is going to be dire.

The Annapurna Interactive entity still exists and still has contracts with developers and platform owners.

What’s happened is that all their staff left. People have been moved over from other Annapurna divisions in an effort to keep things running but its likely a lot of institutional knowledge has been lost.

If I was a developer with a title being managed by them I would be very concerned for its future.

all the PS4 games the PS5 doesn’t have.

Thankfully this list is small enough that you can just ignore it:

• Afro Samurai 2 Revenge of Kuma Volume One
• Just Deal With It!
• Robinson: The Journey
• We Sing
• Hitman Go: Definitive Edition
• Shadwen

https://www.playstation.com/support/games/ps5-backward-compatibility-games/#only

workers who have lost their jobs should “drive an Uber” or “go to the beach for a year” until employment settles.

The second part has real “let them eat cake vibes”!

They’ve released 22 video games over the last 40 years, they may have slowed a little in recent decades but they never really stop.

Neat

This film has been in development since 2014.

I guess it depends on how general you want it to be. A general ai that could learn SMB, breakout, bubble bobble or Warioware would different from something more specialized that is tailored for only platformers like SMB, sonic, etc.

Best anno was on Wii.

I don’t know about this title but standards can change.

The Australian OFLC rated:

• Fable (2004}: M for “Medium level animated violence”
• Fable: The Lost Chapters (2005): MA15+ for “Strong violence, Sexual references”
• Fable Anniversary (2013): R18+ for “Sexual activity related to incentives and rewards”

These are essentially the same game but every time it was reviewed they bumped it up a rating.

In Australia they give (from largest to smallest):

Ingredients

• Carbonated Water
• Colour (150d)
• Food Acids (338, 330)
• Sweeteners (951, 950)
• Flavour
• Caffeine

With the numbers corresponding to:

• 150d - soft-drink caramel
• 338 - phosphoric acid
• 330 - citric acid
• 951 - Aspartame
• 950 - Acesulfame potassium

WBD reported in August 2024 that it had lost $10 billion in the second quarter of 2024, relating to continued losses from its direct-to-consumer segment and the devaluation of its linear TV assets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros._Discovery

As these are based of the films as much as the books I think they probably have a favorable licensing deal compared with the other licensed Traveller’s Tales Lego games.

The other franchise that might compete is Lego Batman but for that the one the series was released between 2008 and 2018 (i.e. spanning PS2, PS3, and PS4) and it would take a full rebuild of the earlier titles to bring them up to a consistent standard. Probably more effort than they want to spend on a cheap cash grab.